London, Sept. 14, Gradual disappearance of road rilly and house-painters, redressing of shop windows, dally' reports of fashionable weddings and dally gathering of crowds outside the churches where fashionable weddings are held, @ sense of all-round quickening up in the stream of life, brilliant days and nights that have already felt more than one touch of frost: all these are signs of th beginning again of "the little season, which in many ways is much more enjoyable than the great one. Entertainment ig not pushed to the dimensions of a treadmill, and one has certainly much more energy September and October than in June and. July.
'The endless demand for something new has been met by "oyster and. Diack velvet" parties, held. between noon and lunch time. They are said fo be more popular than cocktail parties and they' certainly are. much more nourishing. I know nothing compare with a judicious blend of stout and champagne for putting. Backbone into one, But the" word judicious "should be emphasized. "Black velvet" is an insidious drink.
Oysters, by the way, are decidedly sheaper this year. f was lunching to-day at a. very ancient restaurant in the Strand which specializes in fish, and Whitstable natives were only 45 the dozen. Two or three years ago they were Ts. or more, These to-day were a trifle small but of perfect favour.
Cocktail Parties Popular Cocktail parties, however, are by no means done for. Indeed several. brides this autumn have have had 8 cocktail party the day before their wedding instead of a reception after it. There is much to be said for this Way of doing things. There are few functions at which one Is supposed to be s0 hilarious and actuall flat as wedding reception the saving on champagne tinct advantage for the bride's. parents, By way of encouraging this fashion. Dorchester "House has, this week held an immense competition new cocktail "recipes, no fewer than 1,500." Juries of five were em-Danelled, each member of whom was sven seven cocktails to test. Phipps inthe "Daily Mail" says, these welded the jury into One: Big Happy Family. Promising to write to one another they were then persuaded to disperse, and another Jury took their place."
Tam afraid I cannot say which of the 1,500 recipes took the frst prize, Dut the authority just quoted under~ stands that the present tendency in cocktalleraft is the we of new oF "revived" liqueurs, notably two prewar American products "Forbidden Fruit" and "Creme Yvette," which fastes ike violets, or at any rate as they. smal Methods of House Heating Thoughts of autumn lead on naturally to the many new ideas for heating a house which the shops are showing. The new chromium-plated electric stoves are very effective. Behind the heating part is a reflector, which may be used either to form a brilliant background to the fre, oF to provide ornamental lighting without heat. Another novelty isan electric radiator which looks like a wireless cabinet. "This is designed for halls, or rooms in which the out ward semblance of a fire is not needed; and while it heats the air, ft also keeps it in circulation, 56 that all parts of the room are equally warmed, Beautiful Device For users of gas the gas-lit log fire has been brought to wonderful Perfection: it is really a beautiful @evice. Gas has the advantage over electricity that it ventilates the room. But there are drawbacks to the cleverness of the gas-engineers. A friend of mine has, in his library, 2 gas fire in the open grate. which 50 exactly like the real thing that his visitors are for ever throwing cigarette stumps into it, which have to be picked out with' cursing and scorched fingers. It is hard to believe that only a quarter of a century ago the houses even of well-to-}do were heated only by open fires in the principal living-rooms, hall and staircases being unheated and fires in bedrooms "lit only "for a treat" ordin case of sickness. Yet we were not specially conscious of being uncomfortable. According Miss Yonge the Normans regarded glass in the windows of living rooms, first brought in T think by the French as most luxurious and effemmate.
Dame Madge Kendal The death at 86 of Dame Madge Kendal carries us back a long way in the annuals of the theatre, especial= ly as she herself was the 22nd child of her parents. She began acting at the age of six, was only 14 when Jshe was given a leading part in the Bradford pantomime, and 16 when she played Ophelia in London. She married at 20, and thenceforward they retired in 1907 "the Kendals" were a household word, frst through their long tenancy of the St, James's theatre, which began in 1681, and afterwards in provincial tours. They were never parted and although he did not possess her genus they were truly a great couple, In some ways Mrs. Kendal might be placed above Ellen Terry for she had not those Personal charms which made every-tone fall in love with Ellen Terry at first sight. But when Mrs, Kendal began to act one was oblivious to everything except her extraordinary magnetism and ability, Her taste in plays might now be called Victorian. One obituarist says that she played in "The Second Mrs. Tanquerary" because Paula ended in disaster; had she triumphantly survived her doubtful past, Mrs, Kendal would never have had anything to do with her, It is recorded of her that a few years ago she said she was glad to see that girls had added something to the length of their dresses but was sorry that they had taken it off their backs. But Mrs, Kendal was the very reverse of lacking in humanity. and sympathy, and while she was very strict about the sort of plays she put on. She might have retorted that to have a strict set of taboos gives enormous opportunities of humour and impish= ness (as her own acting proved) in pretending {o break them. That Is Something which the modern dilection for calling spade a spade too often overlook Her best saying perhaps was her answer to the question what makes cessful actress. "You must ave." Mrs, Kendal said, "The face of Venus, the figure of Juno, the brains of Minerva, the memory of Macaulay, the chastity of Diana, the grace of Terpsichore, but above. and beyond all, the hide of a rhinoceros, Lady Precious Stream Holds Interest Apropos of the theatre I went this afternoon to see "Lady Precious Stream" again, not having soon It singe very early in its prodigious Fun. (It reaches its 200th perform= ance next Tuesday). Although the Little Theatre was closed for som weeks in the summer for redeeer on the demand for seats is as ever; not withstanding the beauty of the day every seat was full and the play bids fair to Tun welt till Christmas. "At each side of the stage, hung perfectly fat, are some lovely Chinese tapestries, lent by Sir James' Stewart Lockhart and Mr, W. P, Ket (formerly Consul-General in Tientsin) and new costumes are worn, Otherwise all the Chinese theatrical modes are carefully kept. When I saw the play before, the company; if not strange to their work, were distinctly uncertain og, to how It would yo. Now they show that Armness and spirit which come with fan assured, indeed an outstanding success. Throughout the acting 15 superb. Mr. Leon Lion, who has come in as Prime Minister is. mage ficent, while Miss Carol Coombe a3 the heroine is beyond praise. The cliency of her wit, the variety of her meees the firm refreshing character she reveals without unduly emphasizing are beautiful, 'A thought struck one which has not, I think, been mentioned critics here. "Lady Precious Stream" is commonly spoken of og "the 1 years old play," though T have been, told that its actual date ig unknown. It is extremely interesting that 30 Jong ago a Chinese writer should have presented such a woman Precious Stream, so revolutionary in her Independance, so resolute in. following the course she has chosen. A parallel may be found in Thsen heroine Solveig, waiting in het mountain cave through all the years in which' Peer Gynt is _racketing round the world. (Of course Hsieh, the gardener is a much finer char. aster than Peer Gynt). In many ways this ancient Chinese play is curiously modern, the truth being that the so-called "modern" woman ig just as old as Eve, and Eve as new as the modern miss, American Beauty Experts A party of 26. American beauty experts has arrived, on the way the international hairdressing competition at Brussels. None of them have been in Englasid before and they are spending some passing English girls under review with that serious attention to detail which is 2 er Pao
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